15/11/2025 -
From Normandy to Flanders, from southern England to the Netherlands and northern France,
modern people of northwestern Europe form one of the tightest genetic clusters on the continent.
On a PCA plot or with G25-based tools, a French person from Pas-de-Calais can overlap almost
perfectly with someone from Kent, Flanders or Zeeland.
This is not a bug in our calculators. It is the logical result of
the same sequence of population events happening on both sides of the Channel:
Western Hunter-Gatherers, the same Neolithic farmers, the same Bell Beaker expansion, very similar
Iron Age Celtic networks, and then very similar early medieval Germanic migrations.
1. A Shared Mesolithic and Neolithic Foundation
After the Last Glacial Maximum, western Europe was repopulated by a gro...
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10/11/2025 -
From Taiwan to Easter Island: The Genetic Odyssey of the Polynesians
Ancient DNA has transformed our understanding of the greatest oceanic migration in human history. Long before European exploration, Polynesian navigators mastered the Pacific, connecting islands across one-third of the planet. From Taiwan to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), their voyage can now be traced not only through archaeology and language—but through the very genome of their descendants.
1) Taiwan – The Austronesian Homeland (Before 3000 BC)
Modern genomic analyses show that the ancestors of Polynesians originated from the Austronesian-speaking farmers of Taiwan. Populations such as the Amis and Atayal still preserve the closest genetic link to the first voyagers who set sail across the Pacific.
...
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06/11/2025 -
The BAM file is the complete sequence alignment generated by your Big Y test — it contains the raw reads of your Y chromosome. This file is required by third-party services such as YFull for advanced analysis, tree placement and deeper haplogroup discovery. In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through how to request your BAM file on FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA), generate the download link, and upload it to YFull.
What You Need Before You Start
An FTDNA account with a completed Big Y or Big Y-700 test
A valid email address linked to your kit (you’ll receive the BAM link there)
(Optional) A YFull account ready to receive your BAM upload
Step 1 — Sign In to FamilyTreeDNA
Go to https://www.familytreedna.com/sign-in and log in using the same email you used whe...
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29/10/2025 -
Across the world, a few human traits tell a remarkable story of how genes, culture, and environment have co-evolved. Two of the clearest examples are lactase persistence (the ability to digest milk sugar as adults) and light skin pigmentation. Both reflect strong natural selection linked to diet and sunlight exposure — and both trace their spread through ancient human migrations.
The Lactose Story: How Milk Changed Human Evolution
For most mammals, the gene controlling the digestion of milk sugar (lactose) switches off after weaning. Yet in some human populations, that gene stayed active — a mutation near LCT/MCM6 allows adults to keep producing lactase, the enzyme that breaks down milk sugar. This trait, called lactase persistence (LP), became highly advantageous where...
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26/10/2025 -
Among the forests and rivers of the central Volga-Kama region of Russia lives a small but remarkable population — the Udmurts. With only around 500,000 people today, they speak a Finno-Ugric language related to Hungarian and Finnish, yet their genetic and physical traits tell a much more complex story.
A Genetic Puzzle Between Europe and Siberia
Modern genetic data show that Udmurts are a blend of Eastern European and Siberian ancestries.
Using G25 coordinates, they plot between Northern Europeans and Volga-Ural populations, suggesting ancient contact zones between Indo-European and Uralic speakers.
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Udmurt,0.107841,-0.020702,0.079718,0.066315,-0.03057,0.008875,0.008617,0.010716,-0.011055,-0.035615,0.021186,-0.005995,0.015072,-0.03088,-0.010391,-0.005453,-0.00...
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